Abstract

In this study, we investigated how an interaction-design-thinking course benefited secondary-school students in grades nine and ten. We studied the potential benefits of design thinking for students within a design class and, unlike previous studies, we also looked at the potential benefits for students to utilize design-thinking skills when solving issues in everyday situations or non-design courses. As part of a multiple-case study, we developed, implemented, and studied an interaction-design course for secondary students in two secondary schools. We gathered research data by interviewing the students and teachers after completion of the course and by observing activities and student performance during the course. The findings of this study showed the benefits of the course for students in three main themes: interaction-design-thinking as open exploration, interaction-design-thinking as connected activities, and interaction-design-thinking in real-life challenges. The findings indicate that the course was beneficial for students in transferring their knowledge of design thinking gained from an educational context and applying it to everyday situations. Such pedagogy helped students to develop their own design-based meta-cognitive strategies that enabled them to solve unknown problems.